The invention relates generally to solid-state sensor arrays, and particularly to a camera which can acquire high resolution video in real time.
Conventional solid-state video cameras utilizing a very large number of pixels, e.g., over one million, are currently unable to operate at real time frame rates, on the order of 30 frames per second. This deficiency is due to the limitations on the clock speed at which solid-state video sensors having a very large number of pixels can be used. Consequently, even though large high resolution sensors are available, the pixels of these sensors cannot be read out in real time at conventional frame rates.